Ecological sound loudness in environmental sound representations
Urszula Oszczapinska1,2, Laurie M Heller1,2, Seojun Jang1
1Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
JASA Express Letters
|February 20, 2024
Summary
Environmental sound recognition is not hindered by equal sound levels, but pleasantness is affected by deviations from natural loudness. Familiarity and loudness improve sound recognition.
Area of Science:
- Acoustics
- Psychoacoustics
- Auditory Perception
Background:
- Listeners face environmental sound level variations from source and surroundings.
- Short-term sound recognition is disrupted by level variations, suggesting loudness encoding.
- The impact of equalized sound levels on long-term recognition, particularly ecological loudness mismatch, is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if equalizing sound levels affects long-term environmental sound recognition.
- To determine if ecological loudness mismatch impacts recognition.
- To assess how sound pleasantness is affected by deviations from ecological loudness.
Main Methods:
- Environmental sounds were presented at either equalized or ecological loudness levels.
- Sound recognition and pleasantness were evaluated across different loudness conditions.
- Familiarity and real-life experience with sound sources were considered.
Main Results:
- Sound recognition improved with increased loudness and familiarity.
- This recognition improvement was independent of sound level equalization or prior experience.
- Deviations from ecological loudness levels altered sound pleasantness.
Conclusions:
- Equalizing sound levels does not impede long-term environmental sound recognition.
- Ecological loudness plays a role in the pleasantness of environmental sounds.
- Auditory perception research should consider natural loudness variations for accurate soundscape evaluations.
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